The Samurai, the Witch and the Raven
by Hisha P
Summary: "Someone was approaching ; the man decided to remain hidden until he could determine whether the intruder was dangerous or not." [Warning : chapter 3 may contain stuff that could be trigger-y to some and disturbing to others.]
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** : I obviously don't own Samurai Jack or any other character featured in the show. However, the witch and the raven are mine.  
I hope you'll enjoy my fanfiction!  
Sorry if there still are some grammar mistakes, English isn't my first language.  
Have any questions, constructive criticism or comments about how much I suck/don't suck? I'm listening. :)

* * *

The breeze was blowing through the brown and golden leaves of the forest, barely disturbing the silence. As the evening was slowly passing and the air getting a little bit colder, a lone man in white was hiding in a bush, hoping his future dinner would soon walk into the trap he had previously set.

A small animal finally appeared and slowly approached the bait, not suspecting anything. However, just before it got close enough to set off the trap, a voice scared it away, and it was obviously not the voice of the man in white.

Someone was approaching ; the man decided to remain hidden until he could determine whether the intruder was dangerous or not. The voice paused, letting him hear the sound of footsteps on the crunchy fallen leaves, then came back louder and singing in a language he didn't know :

_ "Promenons-nous dans les bois  
Pendant que Aku n'y est pas_

_Si Aku y était  
Il nous mangerait_

_Mais comme il n'y est pas  
Il nous mangera pas !"_[1]

The voice and the footsteps came closer and their source_s_ became visible : the person walking was a red-haired woman wearing a brown cape and holding a staff longer than she was tall while the song came from the raven perched on her shoulder.

"Will you please stop that?" the human asked her feathery friend, visibly annoyed.

"You're just jealous because you can't sing to save your life", the bird replied, proving to be able to do much more than simply mimicking human speech.

"No, I'm just… I mean, can't you sing another song for once?"

"I sing whatever I want!"

"Alright…" the woman in brown sighed. "The house shouldn't be far. We'll be safe there."

The man in white stepped out of his hiding place as the mysterious duet was about to disappear behind the trees again. The sound of his wooden sandals on the autumn leaves alerted the raven, who alerted her companion that they were followed. They stared at the man, then at the katana on his side, then back at him for a good half a minute before the bird broke the silence :

"Are you… Samurai Jack? Icantbelieveitlookitshim oh my. Can I have your autograph?"

"Sorry to interrupt, but we have to get to the house before the patrol arrives", the woman stated. "You should come with us, Jack : you'll get a roof over your head tonight and we'll get our autographs. Follow us!"

The samurai known as Jack hesitated a moment before following the stranger, keeping his hand on the hilt of his sword just in case her intentions weren't that friendly.

The house mentioned earlier was waiting for them in a nearby clearing. Its frontage was almost completely covered in lichen and ivy.

The woman in the brown cape produced a key from a hidden pocket, unlocked the front door, opened it to Jack and locked it behind them. Then, she put the key back where it came from and handed the samurai a pen, smiling. He took it when she reached for another pocket in her outfit and grabbed a notebook which could fit in the palm of her hand and asked him to sign it.

It wasn't the first time he was asked to sign something (someone even asked him to sign her undergarment once, which he politely refused), so just like the other times he quickly drew his family crest on the paper.

Jack then took a closer look at the room before him. It was home for dust, spider webs and dusty spider webs. The curtains covering the windows had lost their original colours long ago.

"It's been so long since the last time I was there…" the woman whispered to herself, confirming the warrior's suspicion that the house had been abandoned for quite some time.

"Was this your home?" he asked.

"It was my teacher's house", she explained while leaning her staff against the wall. "She used to say I'd always be welcomed here."

"What happened to her?" the raven asked.

"Nobody knows for sure, but she disappeared only a few days before the school was destroyed…"

The bird flew away from her companion (who left the room, visibly looking for something) to sit atop the back of the old armchair next to the samurai. Even though her beak was not as expressive as a human face, her amazement at being in presence of a living legend such as Samurai Jack was still pretty obvious.

The warrior had been wandering in Aku's future for years now, helping people in need while constantly trying to get back to his own time. He always did what he felt was right, and knew many people admired him for it ; however he had spent more time fighting off the bounty hunters out to kill or capture him than with his "fans" as the people of this land would say.

The woman in brown and her bird appeared to be fans, but the samurai knew from experience people weren't always what they seemed to be.

The woman came back in the living room carrying as many brooms and dust-cloths as she could and set them down on the floor in front of her before reciting a quite long incantation.

Soon, the previously inanimate objects started cleaning the entire house all by themselves.

Once the coat rack had been cleaned by one of the dust-cloths, the witch hanged up her cape, revealing the dark grey outfit and black shoulder bag she was wearing underneath.

"So, as long as we don't attract too much attention from the patrol we'll be safe here", she said.

"You've mentioned a patrol twice", Jack pointed out. "May I ask you what it is?"

"Aku's drones often patrol in the area. 'Been this way ever since that factory was built over the school I went to as a kid. People usually evacuate whenever they appear in the distance."

At the mention of his mortal enemy, the samurai instinctively reached for the hilt of his sword.

"I must put and end to-" he started before the witch interrupted him :

"Not now. Everyone has already run away to safety, and even if you destroyed every single drone out there right now, a brand new army of those will be built the next day. The best thing to do is to stay here for the night and go back to our separate ways tomorrow. Hungry?"

While asking this one-word question, she produced from her shoulder bag a loaf of bread twice the size of its container and a large knife. Jack stomach answered for him.

The raven flew from the armchair to the back of the couch in which the two humans sat. The redhead cut three slices of bread then divided the first one into smaller pieces she fed one by one to the bird.

However, the latter spent more time asking Jack about his adventures than eating. Her friend had to remind her that if the warrior was to tell them about everything he went through over the years, they'd probably be there all week.

She later guided Jack to the guestroom which had been cleaned by the enchanted brooms and dust-cloths. The raven, now back on the witch's shoulder, noticed the bookshelf facing the bed and asked :

"Wait, are these books in French?"

"Yes", the woman replied, smiling at old memories of her long-lost mentor. "She was awesome like that."

"I beg your pardon", the samurai spoke, "but… I'm afraid I'm not familiar with this language. What is so special about it?"

"Well, same thing than with way too many regional tongues : ever since Aku's administration imposed the Universal Language everywhere, not that many people still speak French nowadays", the witch explained. "The countess does though."

"I'm a duchess", her feathery friend corrected.

If there was still any room for doubt that she was no ordinary raven, it had now vanished. Jack had encountered a bird who used to be human before, if that scissor smith in that village he found himself in years ago was to be believed ; this one must be in a similar situation.

"Whatever", the duchess' companion replied. "There are many more books in the main bedroom, wanna see, _ma chérie_?"

Sitting on the edge on the bed in her former mentor's room, the witch was reading aloud to the raven on her shoulder. She hadn't had the occasion to speak more than a word or two of French in years and therefore the duchess helped her whenever she had trouble with the pronunciation.

"What would I do without you?" the redhead asked once they finally finished reading _Le Petit Chaperon_ Rouge[2]together.

"I don't know, you tell me", the bird who wasn't really a bird replied.

"I'd rather not think about it. I don't want to imagine my life without you in it."

The witch then closed the book, put it back on the shelf and got ready to go to sleep.

Even though hours passed, to her it felt like she had just fallen asleep when her companion started to frantically peck her face to wake her up.

"_Chérie_, I need my beauty sleep…" she grumbled, rolling on the other side of the bed to escape the sharp beak of the raven.

This did not stop the latter, who was now attacking the back of her head.

The witch finally gave up and opened her eyes and sat up. Her friend hopped in front of her and started talking, but she couldn't understand a thing : lip-reading didn't work on birds.

"Wait a minute princess", she said, yawning and reaching for a small object on the bedside table, "let me get my hearing aid."

"I'm a duchess" was the first thing the red-haired woman heard after putting the device in its place.

"Why did you wake me up?"

"Samurai Jack is gone."

"Of course he is, he has more important things to do than staying with us, you know. Like fighting Aku's tyranny and stuff."

"You don't understand, dear", the raven said. "He asked me where the factory was! He said something about getting rid of the patrol! I think he wants to destroy the factory!"

"What?" the witch jumped out of bed and grabbed her bag. "We have to help him!"

"You're crazy."

"What else is new?"

* * *

**Notes** :

[1] The raven's song is a real-life French nursery rhyme I changed the lyrics of to make it about Aku (because hey, I'd bet anything you want that a being such as the Shogun of Sorrow would inspire hundreds of songs to the people living under his reign). The original lyrics say "_pendant que le loup n'y est pas_".

[2] French title of _Little Red Riding Hood_.


	2. Chapter 2

In the early hours of the morning, the city was a quiet as it could get. One of those strange flying chariots would sometimes pass overhead but none of them stopped, their drivers not even noticing the man in white walking towards the industrial area down below.

Jack finally reached the front of the drone factory, which was decorated by one single kanji in red paint over the black metallic door.

Aku's name.

A sudden gust of wind right behind him made the samurai turn around to find its cause, which was none other than the witch riding her own staff in the air, the raven flying by her side.

The former landed on the ground in front of Jack while the latter perched on her shoulder.

"I wouldn't use the front door if I were you", the redhead warned him. "Or any other door. They must all have some sort of traps for intruders. 'Guess we can always try the window if there's any."

"Have you come all the way here to help me destroy this place?" the man in white asked.

"Of course", the woman in the brown cape replied. "I've always wanted to see this factory burn down."

There was no time for questions ; the raven flew around the building looking for a better entrance and then came back to inform the witch and the warrior of the existence of a window just large enough for a human body to fit through. It was locked ; however a quick spell by the magic user was enough to take care of this minor inconvenience. As the three of them entered the factory one by one, the first thing they noticed was the complete stillness of the machines. The second was the absence of any other life form.

The third thing that came to their attention was the mass of already fully-assembled beetle drones facing the main entrance about one hundred meters to the trio's left.

And, without warning, the factory itself came alive. Several conveyor belts brought the necessary materials to various machines that turned them into robot parts and the separate parts travelled towards the centre of the huge room to be put together by hundreds of mechanical arms. Then, the newly created robots joined the others all by themselves. The whole process kept repeating itself at such a rate the three intruders' eyes could barely follow.

"I'll go find the control room", the duchess informed her comrades before flying away, hoping the deafening noises of the machines would help her not being noticed by Aku's mechanical soldiers.

Then, every single drone already assembled slowly turned around to face the samurai and the witch ; the former unsheathed his katana while the latter threw her cape away and prepared a spell. The drones struck first, but Jack deflected their sharp metal claws with his sword and cut five robots in half before his new friend shouted he should get out of the way ; he leapt to her right, she struck the ground with her staff and a powerful shockwave sent all the robots in its path flying in the air and crash into the walls, floor, door, and each other. However, there was still many more of them to deal with, and even more were on their way to be assembled.

The samurai was doing his best to protect the witch while she was preparing other spells but their enemies were so many she still had to constantly dodge the scythe-like blades of the drones, which didn't give her any time to cast any more powerful jinx, so she resorted to magic she could conjure in only one word or hand sign such as fireballs hot enough to melt metal.

Soon enough, Jack's clothes were torn to shreds, he and his comrade were covered in thick dark oil and piles of either melted or sliced in half (when not both) insect-like killing machines were scattered all over the floor ; however the factory itself replaced the drones faster than the two humans could destroy them.

Aku's mechanical minions surrounded the witch and the warrior who both knew they wouldn't be able to keep fighting forever but refused to give up.

The factory suddenly got much quieter. Even the robots seemed surprised by the change. The conveyor belts and mechanical arms and everything else in the factory were now just as still as when the intruders arrived. Then the duchess' voice made itself heard through various speakers all over the inside of the building :

"The control room is right above you guys! Come here right now, we have to destroy the main computer!"

"You should go", Jack shouted out to the witch while cutting off the head of an umpteenth robot, "I'll distract them!"

She hesitated, but had to admit it was the best thing to do, therefore a few fireballs later, she flew away from the fight, riding her staff like she did before, and joined the control room.

"You left him alone?" the raven cried out when her friend arrived.

"He can handle them better than me" the redhead replied, "we just have to destroy the computer before one of these drones manages to cut him in half! What do I do now?"

"The drones might be recent, but the computer is an old model", the bird explained in the tone of someone who knew what they were talking about. "It's not magitech, you can fry it."

The witch didn't need to be told twice : she activated the microphone the duchess used earlier to warn the warrior that the building might explode, put her hand on the control panel and recited the first incantation that came to her mind.

Down on the ground level, the sudden loss of connection with the main computer disrupted the beetle drones just enough for Jack to jump out of their reach and climb the stairs leading to the control room where he found the witch on the floor, too exhausted to stand ; he had to carry her out of the building, the raven flying by his side.

Just as predicted, the whole building exploded, which made the magic user smile.

The trio was now taking some rest and getting the oil off of them in the first cheap inn they found outside the city.

"You see, for the longest time electronics and magic were believed to be incompatible", the witch explained when the samurai asked what exactly happened. "Spells a tad bit too powerful could fry them and make any device stop working forever…. until _I_ found a parade. When I was only sixteen, I found out I could make devices resistant to magic. Not totally immune : casting a fireball directly at them would still make some damages, you've seen that yourself this morning, but resistant enough not to fry anytime I would try anything more powerful than the most basic jinx while around them, you follow me?"

Jack (who on the way there had somehow found a brand new outfit identical to the one which was destroyed in the fight) nodded even though futuristic technology was still way beyond him most of the time. He had used some of it on several occasions, but how it all worked was still a mystery to him.

"Then my researches were stolen, and some time later Aku's industries started to make magic-resistant drones", the redhead continued. "It's easy to guess what happened…"

She then sighed deeply before mumbling to herself :

"All I wanted was a stupid hearing aid…"

"A hearing aid?" the warrior repeated.

"It's exactly what it sounds like", the raven said.

"I'm almost completely deaf without it", her friend added, pointing to her ear, or rather, to the device in her ear. I accidentally friend countless of those before I made the one I'm using now. That's why I created what they called magitech nowadays…"

"I see. But how did you destroy that… 'computer'?" Jack asked.

"It wasn't magitech", the witch replied.

All three decided to go their separate ways the next day, as their paths, despite having temporally met, had to continue in opposite directions : the two women were heading south to meet a sorcerer while the man in white intended to go north where rumours of yet another time machine were leading him.

"I still can't believe what happened", the duchess whispered to her companion as they were enjoying a drink downstairs.

"Me neither, my dear, me neither…"

Only a few people of various species were at the inn's bar at this time of the day, however this didn't mean the pair shouldn't keep quiet about what they just went through ; therefore they changed the subject of their conversation.

"Anyway… when I get back to human form…" the raven started, not sure how to finish her sentence.

"I spend way to much time every day picturing that moment… But you know you'll always my Raven Queen", the witch said, a broad grin on her face.

"I'm only a duchess", corrected the bird who wasn't a bird.

If she could have smiled in the form she was currently in, she would have been smiling from ear to ear.

"But you're a queen to me, love."

"I'll need a throne then", the raven joked.

"Would my face do?"

The duchess opened her beak to reply, but couldn't give any coherent answer, which made her companion laugh.

However, the laughing was soon interrupted by a stranger who sat next to them at the bar.

The witch casted a glance at all the empty seats around them, visibly annoyed.

The stranger, a green-skinned woman in a black dress, ordered a drink and briefly eyed the bird and the human before fixing her gaze on what was right in front of her.

While the barmaid was busy preparing her drink, she turned her head to her left so that she was looking at the redhead again and spoke to her, ignoring the raven completely :

"Pleasant morning, isn't it?"

"I guess so", the witch replied.

"I won't prevaricate : I saw you entering this place with Samurai Jack. Do you travel with him?"

"No. We just… stumbled upon him by chance, that's it."

The barmaid came back with the stranger's drink, then busied themselves cleaning every single empty glass they could get their four hands on.

"I see", the green-skinned woman commented. "All those bounty hunters are searching for him everyday without much success, and _you_ 'stumble upon' him just like that."

"We even got his autograph!" the raven said.

"You could have gotten _much more_."

"What are you getting at?" the witch asked.

"The bounty on his head, of course. You could have kept travelling with him, gained his trust, and then struck when he least expected it…"

"I see what you mean, miss, but I've seen him fight", the red-haired woman told the stranger. "I clearly don't stand a chance against him. And, let's face it, nobody does. I mean, he's still roaming free after years of having the highest bounty in history on his head ; plus _Aku himself_ hasn't been able to defeat him!"

"For now", the woman in the black dress hissed.

"The way I see it, the only way anyone could defeat him would be to wait until he's too old to fight."

"By the way, when exactly did you see him fight if you only stumbled upon him?" the stranger asked, a devilish grin on her face.

Her interlocutors remained silent for a few seconds that felt like an eternity to them.

"The duchess and I were in trouble and he helped us", the witch finally replied. "That's all you need to know."

"I'm a d- … wait… nevermind", the raven spoke. "We should leave. I don't like her."

"You should teach your _foolish_ crow to keep its beak shut", the woman in the black dress snapped.

"I'm a raven!"

The redhead grabbed her staff which was leaning against the bar beside her and pointed it at the stranger's throat.

"If you insult her once again, it'll be the last thing you ever do."

The threat didn't faze her one bit.

"As if you stood any ghost of a chance against _me_…"

The witch, noticing the few other patrons present and the barmaid were staring and probably wondering if a fight was about to break out, lowered her weapon, not wanting to attract unnecessary attention.

"If you're so strong, why don't you fight Jack yourself?" she whispered.

"I actually was curious whether you could be of any use to finally defeat the samurai, but it looks like you won't. However you just might be useful for something else altogether…"

"Listen, miss, I don't know who you are but -" the witch started.

"I am Ikra", the stranger interrupted her.

"Nice to meet you…" the duchess said ironically.

"So, as I was saying…"

The witch was interrupted once again by the sound of wooden sandals against the floor. Both her and her companion turned around to see the samurai enter the room ; when they focused again on where Ikra was seated, she was gone.


	3. Chapter 3

The samurai, the witch and the raven left the inn the next morning. On the way out of the village, the magic user bought a new bright red cape to replace the one she had lost at the factory ; then she and her companion said goodbye to Jack.

It didn't take long for the two women to fly to the manor where the sorcerer they were looking for lived. Their own quest would soon come to an end.

They rang the doorbell. No answer. They tried again half a dozen times and no-one came to either open the door or tell them to go away.

"Guess he's not home", the witch told the raven on her shoulder while putting her hood up to protect herself from the rain that was starting to pour down on the earth.

"Impossible, that fat blob never leaves his home", the duchess said. "If it wasn't for me he wouldn't have seen the light of day at all this year. I bet he's just ignoring us."

The witch opened the door that, to her and the raven's great surprise, wasn't locked.

However, to their even greater surprise, a welcoming committee was waiting for them, and it was obviously not the sorcerer or his employees.

These four whip-wielding demons entirely covered in blue cloth were none other than Aku's personal minions. Encountering them was invariably a bad sign.

The witch instinctively took a step back then instructed her companion to flee as fast as she could.

"But-" the raven tried to protest.

"GO NOW! YOU CAN'T FIGHT! I'LL TAKE CARE OF 'EM!" her friend shouted while making the hand sign of the fireball.

The duchess promised to come back for her and flew away.

Meanwhile, the witch's fireball took down the first demon, the second one hit her left hand with his whip, making her drop her staff and then the third grabbed her and threw her inside.

Two of the three remaining minions of Aku wrapped their whips around her legs, preventing her from standing up or running away ; however she wouldn't accept defeat and threw another fireball at the third one who, just like his comrade before him, vanished into smoke, leaving only the burnt remains of his uniform.

Then, a green and black lightning bolt jumped out of nowhere and struck so fast the red-haired woman didn't even see what happened even though she could easily guess it by the four halves of empty minion uniform dropping on the floor and the familiar face before her. She quickly freed herself from the whips around her legs, stood up and dusted herself off.

"I could have taken care of these demons myself, you know!" she said in an attempt to heal her pride wounded by being seen in such a position by Ikra. "What are you even doing here anyway?"

"You're welcome", replied the warrior woman before sheathing her completely black sword and walking out of the vestibule.

"Hey, wait!"

The witch picked up her staff and followed Ikra through several rooms until they arrived in the largest one in the whole manor, a ballroom with enough space for a group of elephants to dance in if such a silly idea were to cross their minds.

"What's going on?" the redhead asked.

"I see you didn't bring your pet with you this time. Excellent! It's just you and me now…"

"Claire's not a pet, she's a person! Her ex just didn't take it well when she broke up with him… The problem is he's the only one who can break the curse."

"Oh, is that so?" the woman in the black dress said, walking towards the centre of the huge room and stopping there, her back to her interlocutor.

"Hey, I've studied all kinds of magic, white, dark, elemental, you name it ; I know a curse when I see one and I know which ones can be broken by someone else and which ones can only be broken by the person who threw the curse in the first place."

"So you've studied dark magic…" Ikra said, remaining completely still.

"It's always this part that attracts people's attention whenever I give my résumé…" the witch mumbled. "It's important to know this stuff and why it's dangerous and…"

The green-skinned warrior still didn't move.

"Ok, ok, I guess we all have a little evil inside of us…" the duchess' friend admitted.

"Or at least you're about to."

"Wha… What did you just say?"

The woman in the black dress finally turned around, showing the devilish grin on her face.

"Do you need me to repeat myself? Do you happen to have a bad hearing?"

"How do you kn… Wait, you can't know that… right?"

The witch took a step back towards the room's exit before regaining some of her composure and reminding Ikra that she still hadn't answer her questions regarding what was going on and what she was doing in Claire's ex-boyfriend's manor.

"Also, if you have any idea what happened to him…" she added.

"He_ just might_ have been locked up in his own basement with his employees, no food and no akunet connection."

"What?"

"That's what I'd do", Ikra explained.

"…You're evil."

"What else is new?"

The green-skinned woman slowly approached the witch, who instinctively took a few more steps back.

"You see, human fool, I know you and your little friend helped Samurai Jack destroy the factory. And now the almighty Aku wants your head… and the rest of you as well. I certainly wasn't going to, how would you say… _share_ with the minions."

The witch didn't need any more explanation to know she had to defend herself again ; she therefore cast the most powerful fireball she ever created in such a short time. Ikra didn't even bother dodging it, and the red-haired woman quickly understood why.

The very same fire that quite easily melted metal the morning before didn't have any effect on her besides making her laugh at how pitiful the human was.

_"What are you?"_ the latter asked, trembling.

"Don't tell me you still don't know. You've already answered your own question not even a minute ago! I'm the fear that keeps you awake! I'm the shadows on the wall! I AM-"

As Ikra spoke, her voice started changing, her whole body grew until her head brushed the ceiling of the ballroom, and her dress and sword seemed to fuse with her skin, turning most of it into what might as well be darkness itself ; the witch didn't let the monster finish its transformation or even its sentence and cast the most powerful spell she knew. A spell her very first mentor taught her before disappearing without a trace many years ago. A forbidden spell she might have been the last living person on this planet to know. And its only use was to destroy evil creatures.

A blinding light sprang up from her staff and engulfed the demon. When the effect of the holy magic wore out, the redhead, panting and leaning on her staff as though it was an oversized cane, took a look at the results.

The creature who claimed to be called Ikra was now a tar-like substance on the floor. The human had never felt so relieved in her life…

Until the substance started spreading all over the ballroom floor, circling her. As dozens of dark tentacles sprouted from the black mass to grab her, the most terrifying laugh she had ever heard filled the entire manor for a good half a minute. Then, without ever letting her go, the tentacles threw her against the wall, making the air that was left in her lungs escape.

The rest of the black goo took a shape and a face everyone in this world and many others could recognize instantly. The witch knew she didn't stand a ghost of a chance against _him_.

"YOU PATHETIC FOOL! DID YOU REALLY BELIEVE YOUR LITTLE MAGIC TRICK COULD BE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO VANQUISH THE GREAT AKU?" shouted the Deliverer of Darkness himself.

One more tentacle sprouted from his body, went straight to the human's ear, sucked up the custom-made hearing aid she had worked so hard to create, and then covered her mouth, preventing her from using any other magic word.

The next second, Aku's face got so close to hers she could feel the eat emanating from the flames above his eyes. She struggled as hard as she could, but it was no use : pinned and spread-eagle against the wall, her hands engulfed in a dark mass of pure evil and her mouth covered, she could neither move nor use magic. Plus the more she struggled, the more twisted was the demon's smile.

As the Shogun of Sorrow's tongue sprang from between his fangs to slowly lick her face, all that the human's mind could come up with was the word "no" over and over.

This could not be happening.

She had to wake up from this nightmare right now.

No…

With one giant claw of his four-fingered hand, the Master of Masters traced a vertical line from the base of his victim's neck to her waist, ripping her clothes apart and leaving a long trail of blood on her skin.

The witch closed her eyes…

And suddenly, the living restraints around her limbs withdrew and she dropped to the floor. She opened her eyes again to witness Aku being almost cut in half by Samurai Jack, the enchanted blade burning the demon's flesh.

The shape-sifter quickly put his two halves back together and turned into a bat before flying away through the nearest window, breaking it in the process. He shouted something before leaving, but without her hearing aid the witch didn't quite understand what he said.


	4. Chapter 4

The raven, who had alerted Jack and guided him to the manor, landed next to her girlfriend and asked her if she was ok even though it was obvious she wasn't.

The witch, sitting in foetal position against the wall and trembling, raised her head to stare at the very window Aku had escaped through. Claire repeated her question but the redhead didn't seem to hear.

"Aku is gone now", Jack said. "You are safe."

She still didn't answer.

"Her hearing aid might be broken or something", the raven guessed. "You should stand right in front of her so she can read your lips."

The samurai sheathed his katana, crouched down in front of the duchess' companion so his face would be at the same level as hers and carefully placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Your friend and I rushed to your rescue as quickly as we could. Are you feeling alright?" he asked her while Claire perched herself on her other shoulder.

"I'm ok…" the witch lied. "He… he's not going to come back, is he?"

"I don't think so. You're safe right now", Jack replied.

The redhead let out a long sigh of relief.

"By the way, sh… _he_ said something about the sorcerer being locked up in his own basement… If it's true we can still get you back to your true form", she said, turning her head towards the raven and caressing the feathers on her head.

The warrior hold out his hand to the witch to help her stand up and she gladly accepted the offer.

However, when she stood up, the wide tear Aku made in her clothes earlier became visible ; Jack looked away from her exposed skin and the duchess gasped in horror. The red-haired woman looked down at her wound and started feeling nauseous.

She picked up her red cape, which had fallen to the floor when she moved due to the clasp being broken, and used it to cover her front.

"Did he…?" the raven asked, so horrified by what the demon may have done to her partner she forgot the latter couldn't hear her.

The witch didn't need to hear the question to guess what she wanted to know though.

"I can't thank you guys enough. Without you, Aku would have…"

The simple thought made her shudder.

The sorcerer turned out to be indeed locked up in his own basement with his employees, no food and no akunet connection. And as much as he was glad to be free, seeing his ex-girlfriend again didn't please him one bit.

"What are you doing here you little -" he started as his servants left the basement.

"What do you think?" the raven interrupted him. "You're the only one who can turn me back to normal. Being a bird can be fun but I'd like to be able to hold my girlfriend's hand, among other things."

"Yeah, as if I would help you after you ferociously ripped out my heart!"

The red-haired woman, still holding her cape in front of her with one hand, pointed her staff at the sorcerer and said :

"We travelled all the way here, we fought robots and demons, I was _assaulted_, and finally we just freed you! So, if after all of this my girlfriend still remains a raven, I'll turn you into a chicken and send you to my great-grandma's farm. Understood?"

Samurai Jack, who hadn't uttered a word since entering the basement, finally spoke :

"Believe me : this is not an experience you want to go through."

The duchess' ex-boyfriend finally reluctantly agreed to break the curse ; she left her companion's shoulder for the floor, he shot a flash of light from his hands, and when the light hit her, her body grew rapidly to human size and lost its black feathers. Soon, a tall woman with short blond hair and wearing a white dress stood where the raven was a moment ago.

And the very first thing she did was to turn around to face her girlfriend and take her hand in hers. For a moment, everything else was forgotten.

The witch looked up at the duchess, discovering her true form for the first time. To her, she was the most beautiful thing in the entire universe. She had dreamt so many times of this moment, thought about what she would say, but now no words could escape her mouth. She didn't need words anyway.

The two women shared a long-awaited kiss, completely ignoring the sorcerer's grumpy face and the warrior's wide eyes.

"You should take care of this, it could get infected or something", Claire told her girlfriend as they left the basement.

The witch nodded, asked the blonde to hold her cape for a minute, and brushed the wound on her front with the palm of her hand while reciting a healing chant. The injury closed itself, yet a scar still remained and probably wouldn't completely disappear anytime soon. As if she needed a reminder of what Aku did (or _almost_ did) to her on her own skin…

After the redhead was given new clothes by one of the maids, she left the manor with the duchess and the samurai, never to return.

"What are you going to do now?" Jack asked the two women.

"We'll go back to my home", the blonde answered.

"I just hope _he_ won't return…" her companion shuddered.

"If I can be of any assistance…" the samurai said.

"You can", the witch replied. "By completing your quest and going back to the past and make it so that what Aku did never happened."

"I will."

The magic user then declared she might have an idea about how to escape the demon's prying eyes, but didn't say more in case he might be watching them right now.

Soon, she and her partner thanked the samurai one more time and then flew away.

Jack was once again alone with his thoughts, and he couldn't help but feel like everything was his fault. It must have been him who inadvertently attracted Aku's attention on the witch. And had he finished the demon off centuries ago, right before being sent to the distant future, none of this would have happened.

And that was why he had to go back to the past and set things right before they went horribly wrong for the whole world.

* * *

The end... or is it? No, it's clearly not. I'll post the sequel later. :)


End file.
